Week 11: The Peloponnesian War, Part II

Lecture 19, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War II: The Final Crisis, Key Words
Epidamnus
Corinth
Corcyra
Athens
Sparta
Battle of Leucimne
Italy
Symmachia
Epimachia
Battle of Sybota
Lacedaemonius
Potidaean Ultimatum
Megarian Decree
Archidamus
Sthenelaidas
Aegina
Argive Alliance
Cold War
Lincoln
1
Lecture 20, Pericles as General, Key Words
Plutarch
Golden Age of Greece
Strategos
Hermippus
Satyrs
Teles
Cleon
Dr. Julius von Pflugk-Harttung
Franco-Prussian War
Clausewitz
Minister of War
Burgermeister
Themistocles
Cimon
Corinthian Gulf
Sicyonians
Oeniadae
Black Sea
showing the flag
Boeotia
Tolmides
Euboea
Megara
Choruses
Boeotian hoplites
Hans Delbruck
Frederick the Great
Seven Years War
Strategy of exhaustion
Strategy of annihilation
North Vietnamese Communists
United States
Guerilla Warfare
Second Punic War
Rome
Hannibal
Quintus Fabius Maximus
Italy
Spain
Africa
Prussian monarch
Britain
Russian Empress
Georg Busolt
2
Doctrinaire
Hermann Bengtson
Demosthenes
Pylos
Peloponnesus
Helots
Sphacteria
Cythera
Epidaurus
Acarnania
Messenia
Chinese
Status quo ante bellum
Epidamnus
Samos
Caesar
Alexander
Patton
Omar Bradley
Bernard Montgomery
Cimon
Athenian Admiralty
Anglo-Saxon countries
Rationality
Thucydides triad
Fear, Honor, Interest
Long Walls
Athenian way of warfare
Deterrence
Mourning Cloths
Chameleon
Paradoxical Trinity
Linear Phenomenon
3
Chronological Table for the Peloponnesian War 431-404
Archidamian War 431-421
431 March: Thebans, invited by oligarchs (stasis), attack Plataea and attempt to force Plataea to
join the Boeotian League; Plataeans slaughter all the Thebans. First Peloponnesian invasion of
Attica (May) with two-thirds of the league army under Archidamus. Athenians leave the
countryside and retreat within the city walls with families and property; move cattle and pack
animals to Euboea and adjacent islands. Pericles dispatches 100 ships with hoplites, soon joined
by 50 Corcyrean vessels, around the Peloponnese to make raids along the coast; acquires
Cephallenia as an ally; 30 other Athenian ships protect Euboea from Locrian pirates, capture the
town of Thronium and fortify the desert island of Atalanta. Athens expels inhabitants of Aegina
as responsible for the war, and the island becomes a cleruchy; Spartans settle banished
Aeginetans in Thyrea. Pericles leads 10,000 citizen and 3,000 metic hoplites in first of the twice
yearly Athenian raids into Megara; ravage territory and return home. Athens makes alliance
with King Sitalces of Thrace through Athens proxenos in Abdera, who also reconciles
(temporarily) Perdiccas of Macedon with Athens after the Athenians restore to his jurisdiction
Therma, a city at the head of the Thermaic Gulf. Reserve of 1000 talents secured by Athens
against contingency of invasion; 100 best triremes kept in permanent reserve under 3 trierarchs.
431/0 Pericles delivers Funeral Oration over war-dead.
430 Dramatic date for Platos Protagoras. Plague breaks out in Athens, spreading from Piraeus.
Peloponnesians invade Attica a second time for forty days with two-thirds of their forces under
Archidamus; Pericles leads an assault on Epidaurus with 100 Athenian ships, joined by 50 from
Chios and Lesbos; he fails to take the town; ravages the land of Troezen, Halieis and Hermione,
and destroys Prasiai on the eastern coast of Laconia and returns home; the Spartans and their
allies sail with a hundred ships against Zacynthus; later in the summer two of Pericles fellow
generals, Hagnon and Cleopompus, take command of the fleet and sail to Chalcidice to join in
the siege of Potidaea; Plague reaches Athenian force besieging Potidaea, ravages it. Athenians
suspend Pericles from Board of Generals; send peace embassy to Sparta; Pericles delivers last
reported speech (2.60-64); Athenians send no more peace envoys, but depose and fine Pericles;
winter: Phormio, Athenian admiral, operates from Naupactus in Corinthian Gulf with twenty
ships.
430/29 February: Athenians reelect Pericles strategos for the year 429/8; following the two
years blockade (432-430) and 2,000 talents expenditure by Athens Potidaea falls; Potidaeans
permitted to depart to wherever they could find asylum; Athenians later sent out their own
settlers to colonize the deserted city.
429 The Peloponnesian army avoids Attica because of plague, march against Plataea instead;
Spartans insist that Plataea abandon alliance with Athens and become neutrals; with assurance
from the Athenians, Plataea decides to remain loyal to Athens; Archidamus lays siege to town
with 400 inside (women and children in Athens). The Peloponnesians, especially the Corinthians,
and their western allies attempt to detach Acarnania from Athens and to conquer Zacynthus,
Cephallenia and Naupactus; Phormio gains remarkable naval victories in Gulf over much larger
Peloponnesian fleet. Athenian garrison established at Aenus in Thrace. Pericles dies of plague
(September). About half inhabitants of Plataea escape to Athens.
429/8 (winter) in northern regions Sitalces, king of the Thracians, at variance with Perdiccas,
leads an army of 150,000 men against Macedonia; pillages country; reconciled with Perdiccas,
he goes on to ravages territory of the cities of Chalcidice before returning to Thrace.
4
428 Fourth year of the war. Euripides produces Hippolytus. Sophocles produces Oedipus
Tyrannus (possibly 427), with initial description of plague. Peloponnesians invade Attica for the
third time. (June) Four of the five cities on the large island of Lesbos, except Methymna, which
remains loyal to Athens, revolt under the oligarchic leaders of Mytilene (Lesbos and Chios are
the only two remaining autonomous members of the empire, each providing ships rather than
tribute); Sparta and Boeotia foment the revolt through their proxenoi in Mytilene; Athens lays
siege to the city; Sparta and her allies accept Mytilene as ally and agree to invade Attica a second
time (August); Introduction of eisphora, or capital tax, in Athens (both citizens and metics liable)
produces 200 talents; Athens dispatches 12 money-collecting ships to the allies; general Lysicles
and some of his troops killed by the Carians on expedition; Anaxagoras dies.
427 Sparta introduces a war-fund to raise money. Peloponnesians invade Attica a fourth time;
Alcidas, the Spartan admiral, fails to relieve Mytilene with his fleet of forty-two ships. Surrender
of Mytilene to Athenian commander Paches: Cleons motion to massacre all men and sell
women into slavery reversed by the vote of a second assembly: Athenians destroy the walls of
the Mytileneans and take their ships, and divide the land of the island, except that of Methymna,
into 3,000 lots, which they assign to Athenian cleruchs sent to the island. Surrender of Plataea to
Sparta (under siege since 429, half-starved, unaided by Athens): town destroyed, many citizens
executed under influence of Thebans who resented Plataeas anti-Boeotian Athenian alliance.
Civil War (stasis) breaks out on Corcyra with the return from Corinth of the Corcyrean prisoners
captured during the Epidamnian affair; conflict between the returned prisoners and the pro-
Athenian democratic faction. Leontini, Naxos, Catana, Rhegium send joint embassy (including
Gorgias the famous rhetorician) to Athens for help against Syracusan aggression. First Sicilian
expedition dispatched with 20 ships under Laches, to prevent the exportation of Sicilian grain to
the Peloponnesus and to test the possibility of bringing Sicily into subjugation (3, 86). Athens
renews treaty of 457 with Segesta (Sicily).
427/6 (winter) Second outbreak of plague in Athens: altogether about one-third of population
dies from plague, including 4,400 hoplites and 300 cavalry. Slaves start deserting from Laurium
mines.
426 Aristophanes Babylonians (A. prosecuted by Cleon because of the play). Demosthenes
makes Aetolian expedition with thirty Athenian ships, joining contingents from Acarnania,
Zacynthus, Cephallenia and Corcyra; ravage island of Leucas; he invades Aetolians but suffers
defeat in guerilla war. Spartans, at request of the Trachinians and Dorians of the metropolis,
found Heraclea, in Trachis, near Thermopylae, hoping to secure the route to Thrace and establish
a base for ravaging Euboea. Demosthenes and the Acarnanians defeat the Peloponnesians and
Ambraciots at Olpae at the eastern end of the gulf; Acarnanians and Amphilochians refuse to
conquer Ambracia for Demosthenes. Laches captures Messina (Sicily).
426/5 Athenians purify Delos; establish a new quinquennial festivalthe Delian Gamesthe only
international festival under Ionian control. Loans (426-22) floated from Sacred Treasuries to
Athenian State. Decree of Cleonymous, establishes a Boards of Collectors to extract more
grain and tribute from subject-allies; collectors personally responsible for the tribute due.
Second Leontini embassy to Athens; second squadron of 40 ships voted to Sicily under the
generals Eurymedon and Sophocles.
425 Aristophanes the Acharnians wins first prize. Peloponnesians invade Attica for the fifth
time. Laches relieved of his command in Sicily; Messina lost. Cleon enforces naval blockade of
Peloponnese. Demosthenes builds fortress at Pylos as an asylum for escaping helots; the
Spartans withdraw from Attica and send a force to Pylos; they station 420 hoplites on island of
5
Sphacteria, whom the Athenians trap in what becomes a 72-day blockade; Spartans make an
armistice and turn over their navy to Athens but refuse peace terms offered; Cleon takes Nicias
command, defeats the Spartans with Demosthenes and captures 120 Spartiates on Sphacteria.
Athens rejects Spartan peace offer; end annual invasions of Attica; Messenians from Naupactus
take possession of Pylos. Athenians help Corcyrean democrats defeat and slaughter the oligarchs;
stasis on Corcyra ends, for of one party there was practically nothing left (Thucydides, 4.48.5).
Athenian squadron sails from Corcyra to Sicily (August-Sept.). Darius of Persia confirms 449
Peace of Callias.
6
425/4 Athens (i.e., Cleon) reassesses subject-allies tribute (doubled and in some cases tripled).
Total due is now 1460+ talents from 400 cities. Three-obol pay introduced for Athenian jurors.
424 The Spartans, fearing for the Spartiates who were prisoners in Athens, do not invade Attica.
Hyperbolus proposes idea of military intervention in West. Tentative negotiations between
Sparta and Persia break down. Aristophanes The Knights pillories Cleon. Athenians make
general blockade of Peloponnesus; try to take advantage of stasis in Megara and to take control
of city; Spartan general Brasidas occupies Megara, thwarts Athenians, sets up narrow oligarchy
and marches overland through Thessaly and Thrace; Amphipolis, Acanthus and other cities come
over to him; Athens seizes and garrisons Nisaea, the Megarian port on the Saronic Gulf; Nicias
attacks Cythera and forces the Spartan perioeci to capitulate. In Sicily the various Sicilian cities
meet in a Congress at Gela and terminate hostilities there on basis of status quo; the Syracusan
Hermocrates warns that Athens is preparing for the conquest of all Sicily; Athenian commanders
prosecuted on return to Athens: accused of taking bribes when they should have carried on the
war. Athens and allies, including Socrates and Alcibiades, defeated at Delium on the east coast
of Boeotia; Athenian general and 1,000 hoplites killed. Disappearance of 2,000 bravest helots;
Chalcidic communities request help from Sparta and Brasidas against Athens; Brasidas leads
1,700 men through pro-Athenian Thessaly, persuades Acanthus and Stagirus (colonies of
Andros) to revolt, and, aided by Andrian Argilus, brings about the surrender of Amphipolis on
generous terms; Thucydides (the historian) exiled for losing Amphipolis, probably on the motion
of Cleon.
423 Aristophanes composes Clouds. Athens resident aliens purged and expelled? Brasidas
gains control of Torone. One-year truce agreed between Athens and Sparta: Brasidas in Thrace
ignores armistice (having just been crowned liberator of Hellas by Scione); Athenians reject
Spartan offer to arbitrate over Scione; Cleon carries motion to sail to Chalcidice and slay the
7
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
Scionaeans; Mende, Sciones neighbor to the west, revolts. Nicias operating from Potidaea,
which Brasidas fails to capture, takes Mende; Athenians begin siege of Scione. Perdiccas,
disillusioned with Sparta, seeks relations with Athens again. Capua (Italy) is captured by
Samnite tribesmen. Leontini annexed by Syracuse. Temple of Hera at Argos rebuilt after fire.
422 Aristophanes produces Wasps. Regulations made for offering of first-fruits at Eleusis.
Embassy from Leontini to Athens complains of Syracusan aggression. Athens sends diplomatic
mission to Sicily under Phaeax. One-year truce with Sparta expires; Cleon sails to Chalcidice
with a considerable force and captures Torone before Brasidas can arrive; Cleon, having
advanced on Amphipolis without waiting for Perdiccas and his Macedonians, is killed during an
unsuccessful attack; Brasidas dies in same battle (September). Deaths of Cleon and Brasidas, the
pestle and mortar of the war (Aristophanes, Peace), increase influence of peace factions led by
Nicias at Athens and King Pleistoanax at Sparta. Revenues from Athenian tribute, taxes etc. near
2000 talents (Aristophanes, Wasps 656-664).
422/1 New Athenian tribute assessment scales down 425 totals to 1000 talents. Thirty Years
Peace between Sparta and Argos is about to expire; Sparta also concerned about prisoners taken
at Sphacteria and enemy garrisons at Pylos and Cythera encouraging helots to revolt; Athens
shaken by its defeat at Delium, the loss of Amphipolis (i.e., timber and Pangaeus mines) and the
revolts of its Thracian allies. Peace negotiations opened between Athens and Sparta.
421 Aristophanes produces Peace. March: Fifty-year Peace of Nicias ratified between Athens
and Sparta (Thuc. 5.16-18); provisions include Spartas promise to give up Amphipolis, Athens
to abandon Pylos and Cythera, and the release of all prisoners of war; however, some of Spartas
most important allies, the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans and Megarians, refuse to sign the treaty;
Corinth angry about Athens retention of Anactorium and Sollium, Megara upset that Athens
keeps Nisaea, Boeotia refuses to give up border fortress of Panactum, which it had recently taken
from Athens. Clearchus refuses to return Amphipolis to Athens under terms of treaty; Athens, in
retaliation, retains Pylos. Athenians captures Scione, execute all adult males and enslave the rest.
Athens and Sparta make alliance. In response, Corinth, Elis, Mantinea in Arcadia, and the
Thracian Chalcidians join in alliance with Argos; Sparta makes secret alliance with Boeotia to
persuade them to restore Panactum and their Athenian prisoners to Athens, hoping the Athenians
would then abandon Pylos; but the Boeotians first destroy Panactum, so Athens refuses to let go
of Pylos. Argos makes a treaty with Sparta.
420 Alcibiades son of Cleinias on Board of Generals (strategos): Athens at his prompting
repudiates alliance with Sparta, makes a hundred years alliance with Argos-Elis-Mantinea (July).
Sparta banned from 420 Olympic Games because of Argive alliance. Samnites destroy Cyme
(Campania). Protagoras tried in Athens for atheism, banished, dies in shipwreck.
419 Alcibiades and Argos build Long Walls between port and city of Patrae on the Gulf of
Corinth. Corinth forestalls move to take Rheum.
418 First peace-time Great Panathenaia in 16 years: cleruchs dedicate gold crown weighing 1250
drachmas. Alcibiades fails to be elected strategos. Argos makes 4-months treaty with King Agis
of Sparta and Peloponnesian league forces. Battle of Mantinea won by Sparta under king Agis
against Athenian-Argive coalition. Sparta regains former prestige. Oligarchic factions seizure
of power in Argos, which abandons quadruple alliance, is followed by fifty-year Argos-Sparta
treaty. Perdiccas of Macedon now officially (and improperly) allied with both sides.
Demosthenes operates in Strymon area. Athens-Segesta treaty is renewed.
8
417 Rise in grain prices at Athens. Comic poets make jokes about food shortages. Athenian
attempt to recapture Amphipolis aborted. Athenians withdraw garrison from Aenus in Thrace.
Nicias and Alcibiades conspire to have Hyperbolusthe demagogueostracized; the last time
ostracism was employed. Nicias makes lavish contribution to religious festival on Delos: made
9
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
(Map of Battle of Mantinea)
commander of campaign in Chalcidice area. Counter-revolution in Argos restores democracy
(midsummer) and Argives rejoin Athens. Alcibiades helps Argives build Long Walls (also
rebuilds Long Walls at Patrae). Fall: Spartans destroy Argive walls, but fail to capture city.
417/16 Both Nicias and Alcibiades are elected strategos.
416 Agathon wins drama prize in Athens (this is the dramatic date of Platos Symposium, which
represents a party in his honor). March: Alcibiades on Board of Generals purges Argos of
unreliable (i.e., pro-Spartan) elements. Fifty-year treaty made between Athens and Argos.
Alcibiades chariot-teams win 1st, 2nd and 4th prizes at Olympic Games. Athens embarks on
campaign of reduction against the island of Melos, a former Spartan colony and the only
exception to Athenian control in the Cyclades. Athenian garrison at Pylos raids Messenia. By
now Athens recovered from effects of plague: trade and population booming. September:
Embassy to Athens from Elymite Segesta (Sicily) asks for help against the neighboring city of
Selinus, strongly supported by Syracuse; mention threat that the total domination of Sicily by
Syracuse would pose; after receiving a report from their envoys, the Athenians vote to send an
expedition under the joint command of Nicias, Alcibiades and Lamachus.
416/5 Surrender of Melos (winter): adult males killed, women and children enslaved: 500
Athenian colonists sent to island. Herms mutilated. Ostracism of Hyperbolus (date uncertain:
416 or 417). Alcibiades and others charged with sacrilegious parodying of the Eleusinian
mysteries.
415 the Sicilian Expedition sails under Alcibiades, Nicias and Lamachus with about 30,000 men
(June). Reign of terror in Athens against supposed Herm-breakers and Mystery-profaners.
Rhegium refuses to join Athenian expedition in Sicily; Segesta defaults on her payments.
Alcibiades strategy adopted. He fails to take Messina. Recalled to stand trial in Athens, he
jumps ship at Thurii and makes his way to the Peloponnesus: sentence of death and cursing
passed on himin absentia. Athenians fail to win allies in the north of Sicily, fight an indecisive
battle with the Syracusans, and then go into winter quarters in their camp at Catana. Athens
imposes a tough line policy on Nicias. Euripides produces his antiwar tragedy, The Trojan
Women.
415/14 (winter) Syracusans appoint Hermocrates as one of three generals and spend the winter
building and strengthening their defenses around the city and harbor; envoys from Syracuse and
Corinth arrive in Sparta; Alcibiades, who had obtained safe-conduct to Sparta, advises Spartans
to send a Spartan general to Syracuse and to occupy Decelea in Attica. Spartans immediately
appoint Gylippus to the command of the Syracusans.
414 Nicias prepares to put Syracuse under siege. Aristophanes Birds produced (March).
Reinforcements and funds sent to Sicily. Nicias establishes Athenian striking force on Epipolae
above Syracuse: walls and counter walls are built. Lamachus killed. Nicias brings the fleet into
the Great Harbor, at the western end of which he establishes an Athenian camp, intending to
extend the besieging wall from Epipolae to harbor and completely blockade Syracuse. An
Athenian fleet lands on Laconian coast to help Argos against Spartan invasion: this technically
breaks the 421 treaty. Gylippus, Spartan general, reaches Syracuse, with reinforcements from
Himera, Selinus and other allies. Athenian attempt to recover Pangaeus mines near Strymon
fails. Syracusans break blockade and regain Epipolae. Nicias writes to Athenian assembly
asking for reinforcements or authority to evacuate; also to be relieved of his command.
Assembly confirms Nicias in command and votes second fleet under Demosthenes.
10
11
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
(Map of the Siege of Syracus)
414/3 Gylippus is away from Syracuse on recruiting drive. Eurymedon, the Athenian, sails for
Sicily with advance squadron of new expedition. Spartans prepare for occupation of Decelea in
Attica.
413 Gylippus back in Syracuse. Peloponnesian League sends contingents to aid Syracusans.
Spartan army under King Agis invades Attica (first raid since 425) and builds a stronghold at
Decelea (March) and leaves a permanent garrison. Demosthenes sails for Sicily (March) but
spends time recruiting in Arcarnania. Gylippus captures harbor-fort of Plemmyrium, with
Athenian naval stores. Thracian mercenaries massacre children at Mycalessus (Boeotia).
Reinforcements (halved by pro-Athenian guerrilla action en route) reach Gylippus in Syracuse.
Nicias blockaded in Great Harbor: naval skirmishing. Tribute system abolished at Athens,
replaced by 5 % import tax throughout empire. In July Demosthenes and Eurymedon sail into
the harbor of Syracuse with seventy-three triremes and a total force of from 15,000 to 20,000.
Demosthenes makes unsuccessful night attack on Epipolae. Nicias fearing assembly at Athens
refuses Demosthenes plan to return to Greece; Gylippus, who had been collecting allies
throughout Sicily, arrives with a large number of Sicilian troops and Peloponnesians who were
sent to aid Syracuse; Nicias finally agrees to leave; Aug. 27: plan for Athenian evacuation
postponed for 27 days by Nicias after lunar eclipse. Syracusans seal Great Harbor with boom.
Athenian bid at naval break-out fails (early Sept.). Retreat overland of about 40,000 men takes
place and final massacre or capture of all Athenian armed forces at River Assinarus. 7,000
prisoners confined in stone-quarries. Nicias and Demosthenes executed. Work on Erechtheum
(temple of Athena Polias) suspended. Emergency shipbuilding program in Athens and Sunium
fortified. Board of ten Councilors (Probouloi) appointed at Athens, including Sophocles and
Hagnon. Spartan army from Decelea destroying crops and flocks in the plains and hills;
blocking supplies from Euboea; up to 20,000 slaves desert to Decelea from Attica. Laurium
mines closed.
412 Syracuse honor their victory by issuing decadrachmas. Erythrae envoys proceed to Agis in
Decelea accompanied by an ambassador from Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap of the maritime
regions, Lydia, Ionia and Caria; later envoys arrive from Pharnabazus, the satrap ruling from
Dascylium in Hellespontine Phrygia; Darius II demands tribute; Persians encourage Asiatic
Greeks to revolt; Alcibiades leaves Sparta (trouble with Agis: Queen Timaea pregnant) and sails
with small Spartan squadron to Chios, which, with the assistance of an oligarchic faction, he
causes to revolt against Athens. Erythrae, Clazomenae, Miletus, Mytilene, Cyme, Phocaea
follow suit; 1000-talent emergency fund released, reserve triremes put in commission at Athens;
these ships make their headquarters at Samos (8.15). Treaty of Miletus first drafted between
Persia and Sparta, with clause ceding Asiatic Greek cities to Great King, whatever country or
city the king has, or the kings ancestors had, shall be the kings, the war being a joint enterprise
between the king and Peloponnesian League (Thuc. 8.18.1). Athenian fleet sails east to deal
with revolts in Ionia, blockades Chios and regains Lesbos. The Democrats, supported by
Athenian fleet, revolt at Samos against oligarchs; they put to death 200 of the upper classes and
banishing 400; as a reward the Athenians decree autonomy for the Samians (8.21). Spartans
cause Cnidos to revolt. Spartans and Athenians battle for Miletus. Treaty of Miletus renewed:
commission of eleven Spartans meet with Tissaphernes, who breaks up conference when Lichas
challenges clause supporting Persian claim to recover the islands, Thessaly, Locris and
everything as far as Boeotia, and making the Spartans give to the Hellenes instead of liberty a
Median master (8.37).
12
412/11 Alcibiades, now suspected by Spartans (a price put on his head by Agis), seeks refuge
with Tissaphernes at Miletus, has interview with Great King and urges non-alignment policy: let
Athens and Sparta wear each other down; warns that Sparta greater danger than Athens; At same
time he gets in touch with fleet at Samos, promising Persian support if oligarchy is established at
Athens. Lysander sets up governors (harmosts) and garrisons in cities of Asia Minor to protect
the revolting oligarchs from democratic factions and from Athenian attacks; second draft of
Persia-Sparta treaty stating that Persia will subsidize the Spartan fleet.
411 January: Naval battle off Syme (Dodecanese) leads to revolt of Rhodes, which provides
Peloponnesian League with welcome funds. February/March: Aristophanes Lysistrata and
Thesmophoriazusae. Peisander sent to Athens from Samos to prepare way for oligarchic coup
and friendship with Tissaphernes and the Persians. Assembly votes that Peisander and ten others
should sail and make the best possible arrangements with Tissaphernes and Alcibiades, who has
promised more than he can deliver; commission comes back to find Tissaphernes pro-Spartan
again; Treaty of Miletus finally ratified (April): stating that Tissaphernes would pay for Spartas
ships now until the arrival of the kings vessels (the Phoenician fleet); thereafter the Spartans
must pay for their own ships. April: Abydos and Lampsacus revolt against Athens; Lampsacus
recaptured. Athenians build fortress at Sestos. Certain Athenians discuss limiting the citizenship
to 5,000 men capable of serving the state without pay; dissent punished with death; when
Peisander returns assembly votes to elect 20 men who, in conjunction with the 10 probouloi
(Aristotle, Ath. Const., 29.2), should prepare suggestions for the common good, to be presented
to the people; Athenian assembly meets outside city at Colonus; first proposal of the thirty
commissioners abolishes the graphe paranomon; they eliminate pay for government service;
program passed for new Athenian constitution (May), ruled by a council of Four Hundred.
May/June: Council of 500 replaced by new tough council of Four Hundred with totalitarian
methods. Democrats crush attempted oligarchic coup at Samos; envoys from Samos to Athens
return to fleet with horror-stories about reign of terror in city: Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus
persuade the whole population of Samos to take an oath of loyalty to the democracy and enmity
to the Four Hundred and the Spartans; Spartan ships, invited and promised pay by the
Hellespontine satrap, Pharnabazus, cause the revolt of Byzantium; Thrasybulus persuades the
Athenian assembly at Samos to vote for Alcibiades recall and amnesty. Cleavage develops
between moderate (i.e., Theramenes, advocating legitimate citizenship rights for the Five
Thousand) and extreme (Antiphon, Phrynichus and Critias) oligarchs in Athens; Antiphon,
Phrynichus and ten others set out for Sparta to arrange peace/surrender; Phrynichus assassinated
on his return; Subject-allies prefer Spartan offers of freedom to Athenian eunomia. Alcibiades
goes to Samos, elected general, but refuses to lead fleet on Piraeus, thus avoiding civil war. He
returns to Tissaphernes, who imprisons him; he escapes a month later. All of Euboea revolts
from Athens with aid of Peloponnesians; Spartans fail to take advantage of Athens vulnerability
and sail on Piraeus while Agis attacks on land from Piraeus: here, Thucydides points out, as
on so many other occasions the Spartans proved the most convenient people in the world for the
Athenians to be at war with (8.96.5). Government of 400 breaks down, replaced by govt. under
Theramenes based on 5000 (probably 9,000); Vote for recall of Alcibiades.
410-404 Codification of Athenian laws is erected in the Royal Stoa.
410 Pharnabazus in North Anatolia replaces Tissaphernes as main supporter of Sparta; Mindarus,
at Pharnabazus invitation, sails to the Hellespont to cause the revolt of Athens allies; Athenians
under Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus pursue Mindarus and engage and defeat his fleet off Cape
Cynossema in the Thracian Chersonese at the narrowest part of the Hellespont. The
13
intermediate constitution is abandoned after eight months and full democracy restored
(September 411 to April 410); Thucydides remarks about the Five Thousand, it was during the
first period of this constitution that the Athenians appear to have enjoyed the best government
that they ever did, at least in my time (8.97.2). May: Battle of Cyzicus, Athenian navy under
Alcibiades, Theramenes and Thrasybulus more or less annihilates the Peloponnesian fleet;
intercepted dispatch to Sparta reads, The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are
starving. We do not know what to do. (Xenophon, Hellenica, 1.1.23) Athens, under Cleophon,
rejects Spartan peace offer: on basis of status quo, except that Decelea be restored to Athens and
Pylos to Sparta (i.e., Athens ceding Euboea, parts of Thrace, Byzantium, most of Ionia and many
of the islands). Athenians erect a fortress at Chrysopolis occupied as Black Sea toll post, with
Theramenes exacting a 10% toll on all cargoes sailing out of the Black Sea.
410/9 Demophantus passes a decree at Athens prescribing death penalty for any attempt to
overthrow present constitution, or holding office under non-democratic regime. Those
supporting the Four Hundred put on trial and banished. Payment for officials and jurors,
cancelled by 400, reintroduced: establishment of Cleophons diobeleia (2-obol dole for poor),
partly financed by temple treasures; old system of demanding tribute from the allies restored.
409/8 Work on Erechtheum restarted. Temple of Athena Nike completed. Dracos law on
homicide is republished. Athens (Thrasyllus) recovers Colophon but loses Pylos and Nisaea.
Decree passed honoring the assassins of the oligarch Phrynichus.
408 Athens (Alcibiades) recovers Chalcedon and Byzantium, which was guarded by a Spartan
harmost. Gorgias of Leontini protects against the soliciting of Persias alliance by Greeks.
Hermocrates of Syracuse fighting in W. Sicily, overrunning Carthaginian territories.
Carthaginians make alliance with Athens (?).
14
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
(Map of Battle of Cyzicus)
407 Great Kings brother Cyrus comes to Ionian coast as ruler of all Asia Minor satrapies;
replaces Tissaphernes at Sardis, meets Lysander of Sparta and becomes his close friend.
Alcibiades returns to Athens and is elected General for 407/6 (hegemon autocrator in the east);
he helps Athens celebrate the Mysteries of Eleusis with military protection (September); after the
festival, Alcibiades sails to Samos with 100 ships to keep watch on the Spartan admiral Lysander,
who had his headquarters and fleet at Ephesus. Hermocrates dies. Athens reduced to melting
down images and putting gold currency into circulation (no silver). Peloponnesians organize
large fleet. Treaty of Boeotius regulates the problem of pay to the Spartan ships. It also
clarifies the status of the Greeks of Asia Minor, stipulating that they should be autonomous
provided that they pay the old tribute to the King; Darius sends his younger son Cyrus as lord
(karanos) of all the maritime regions in Asia Minor, and orders him to give Spartans unlimited
support; Evagoras and the Athenian Andocides arrange a convoy of grain ships from Cyprus to
Athens.
406 Alcibiades helmsman defeated off Notium after sailing out against his orders and during his
absence. Euripides dies. Conon is Athens leading admiral. Alcibiades not reelected General;
fearing prosecution and being considered an enemy by Athenians, Spartans and Persians, he goes
into exile to his castle in Thrace (Bisanthe). Callicratidas replaces Lysander as admiral; unable
to obtain funds from the Persian prince; moves his headquarters to Miletus and obtains funds and
a fleet of 170 ships; sails to Lesbos and takes Methymna by storm; Conon sails with 70 ships to
defend Lesbos but is defeated by larger Spartan fleet and blockaded in Mytilene harbor. New
Athenian fleet is built (melted dedications, Macedonian timber) and relieves Conon. Slaves at
Athens promised freedom, resident alien citizenship if they will row in fleet.
Battle of Arginusae islands: Largest Greek naval battle ever; Peloponnesian fleet heavily
defeated; Callicratidas killed. Six victorious Athenian generals put on trial for failing to pick up
survivors (4,000-5,000 men drowned); Callixeinos prepares motion in Boule that the people try
15
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
the generals en bloc; Euryptolemos (backed by Socrates) makes two unsuccessful attempts to
bring a graphe paranomon against Callixeinos and prevent the vote; generals executed include
Pericles, son of Pericles by Aspasia, and Diomedon and Thrasyllus; Athens again rejects Spartan
peace proposals: Spartans try to negotiate peace based on status quo, and evacuate Decelea;
Cleophon persuades assembly to refuse peace unless Sparta would return the cities of the
Athenian empire which it had occupied (Aristotle, Ath. Const., 34.1). Athens issuing silver-
plated copper coins. Sophocles dies. Cyrus insists that Persian support depends on Lysander
remaining commander; Lysander named vice-admiral.
405 Erechtheum is completed. Lysander, as Spartan navarch, visits Cyrus and obtains funds;
sets up oligarchy at Miletus, Tissaphernes restores the democrats; Lysander assembles large fleet,
sails to the Hellespont and seizes Lampsacus, which he makes a base; threatens free passage of
grain ships from the Black Sea; Athenians dispatch 180 ships which take position at
Aegospotami in the Chersonese across from Lampsacus. Athenians pass decree permitting their
generals to cut off the right hand of every captured seaman;
September 1: Battle of Aegospotami takes place after Alcibiades vain warning to the Athenian
commanders about the vulnerability of their position. Athenian fleet destroyed. Conon escapes
with 20 ships to Cyprus where Evagoras, king of Salamis receives him. Lysander executes all
3,000 Athenian prisoners except Adeimantus, who opposed assemblys proposal to amputate
right hands. Byzantium and Chalcedon fall to Peloponnesians. All Athenian allies except Samos
revolt; Lysander drives all Athenian colonists, cleruchs and garrisons to Athens to increase
16
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
(Map of Arginusae)
population. Winter: Athens blockaded by land and sea: Lysander sails into Piraeus with 150
triremes, and the Spartan kings, Agis and Pausanias in Attica with armies. Famine increases.
Euripides Bacchae produced.
405-404 Organization of Spartan empire; Lysander brings non-Asiatic Greek cities under
Spartan control with governing oligarchies, usually a decarchy: ruled by groups of ten natives,
approved by Lysander, each supported by a garrison of mercenaries commanded by a Spartan
officer (harmost).
405/404 Athenians attempt to make alliance with Sparta; assembly, on the advice of Cleophon,
rejects Spartas terms; Theramenes sent as peace envoy to Sparta and to Lysander at Samos:
mission lasts several months, Athens comes to verge of starvation. Peloponnesian allies,
especially Corinth and Thebes, demand massacre and enslavement for Athenians: Sparta vetoes
that. Cleophon falsely condemned for evading military service. Lysander takes control of Sestos
on the Hellespont and Byzantium and Chalcedon on the Bosporus to block Athens primary
source of grain and thus ensure the complete destruction of the Athenian empire. He then sails to
Thrace and the Aegean islands and receives voluntary submission of former Athenian allies
Lysander establishes oligarchies, supported by garrisons, in communities to guarantee their
allegiance. April: Athens surrenders. Long and Piraeus Walls pulled down, fleet surrendered
except for 12 ships, exiles brought back, alliance with Sparta, Lysander sailed into Piraeus, the
exiles returned, and the Peloponnesians with great enthusiasm began to tear down the walls to
the music of flute-girls, thinking that that day meant the beginning of freedom for Greece
(Xenophon, Hell. 2.2.23). Greek cities of Asia Minor now paid tribute to Persia, Spartan
garrisons and harmosts removed, though pro-Spartan oligarchies remain.
17
(Map of Battle of Aegospotami)
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions
Radical Democracy & Oligarchic Reaction
For the Peloponnesian Wars, Be Able to Identify:
Acanthus (424), Acarnania, Aegina, Aegospotami (405), Aetolian expedition (426), Agis,
Alcibiades, Ambracia, Amphipolis, Archidamian War, Archidamus, Arginusae (406),
Artaxerxes, Brasidas, Cleomenes, Cleon, Congress Decree (449?), Congress of Gela
(424), Conon, Corcyra, Critias, Cynossema (411), Cyrus, Cythera, Cyzicus (410), Dece-
lea, Decelean War, Decarchy, Delium (424), Demosthenes, Diodotus, eisphora, Five
Thousand (411-10), Four Hundred (411), graphe paranomon, Gylippus, Hermocrates,
Harmost, Heraclea, Ionian War, Lysander, Megarian Decree(s) (c.432), Melian dialogue
(416), Munychia, mutilation of the herms (415), Mytilenian debate (427), Naupactus,
Nicias, Notium/Notion (406), Pausanias, Perdiccas, Pericles (d. 429), Pharnabazus,
Phormio, Phrynichus, Piraeus, Peisander, Plataea, Pleistoanax, Potidaea (432), Pylos
(425), Samian revolt (440-39), Scione (423-21), Sicilian expedition (415-13), Sphacteria
(425), Sybota (433), Syracuse, Thebes, Theramenes, Thirty (404-03), Thrasybulus,
Tissaphernes, Torone
CONSIDER:
1. What was the nature of political competition after the death of Pericles? How were
factions divided? To what extent were factions associated with either ideological or
personal differences? How accurate are the assessments of Thucydides and Aristotle
as to the nature of the divisions and to the quality of Athenian government during the
420s and later? Were Athens war-efforts aided or harmed by its political situation?
2. Consider the following statement by Lysias (one of the orators) in 403: You should
reflect that no human being is naturally either an oligarch or a democrat: Whatever
constitution a man finds advantageous to himself, he is eager to see that one estab-
lished. What policies were associated with the various leaders of Athens? Who
were the radicals and the conservatives? What made them radical or
conservative?
3. What did the policies advocated by the various leaders have to do with their differing
social positions?
4. Which partys policies were more in Athens interests? Is it proper to speak of
political parties in Athens at this time?
5. To what extent do self-interest and patriotism explain the motivations of the different
political leaders? To what extent did factional rivalries and inter-party hatred take
precedence over the best interests of Athens in their decisions? Are the assessments
of our sources justifiable, or do they use these terms merely to smear or praise the
various leaders?
6. What caused the growth of oligarchic movements in 411 and 404? What motivated
and enabled their leaders to establish the oligarchies? What motivated the demos to
accept them? Where did the oligarchs find their support? What were their policies?
What was their view of the ancestral constitution?
18
7. Consider the kind of party history described by Aristotles Constitution of Athens, 28.
To what extent is there a continuous history of political parties or factions in Athens?
Are those involved in the oligarchic movement of 411 the same as those involved in
403?
8. How were the oligarchies established? Does the manner in which they were estab-
lished suggest a weakness in the Athenian state, a weakness common to democracies
or both?
9. What is the verdict of Thucydides and Aristotle on the radical democrats of 411? On
the 400? On the 5000? What does this suggest about their political stance and their
utility as sources for this period?
10. Is there any coherent political position taken by Theramenes? Lysander? Are they
looking out for their own interests or the interests of Athens?
The Parthenon
19
Image not shown
due to copyright restrictions